-
Factory act of 1847
This law was successfully passed due to the contributions of the Ten Hours Movement. This campaign was established during the 1830s and was responsible for voicing demands towards limiting the work week in textile mills. The leaders of the movement were Richard Oastler, as well as John Fielden and Lord Shaftesbury . Employers found a ten hour limit acceptable as it meant that workers could be run in shifts, keeping the factory open for up to twenty hours a day. -
Factory Act 1850
This law was imporved, and added more restriction of the labor forces in america. Children and Women could only work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the summer and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the winter. All work would end on Saturday at 2 p.m. The work week was extended from 58 hours to 60 hours. -
Dorothea Dix
American activist, and reformer on behalf of the mentally ill. through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums. During the Civil War, she served as Superintendent of Army Nurses. -
Freedman's Bureau
Main focus was to provide food and medical care, to help the freedmen to resettle, to ensure justice for the freedmen, to manage abandoned or confiscated property, to regulate labor, and to establish schools. -
Knights of Labor
Organized as a trade union. The largest and one of the most important American labor organizations. Promoted the social and cultural uplift of the workingman, rejected Socialism and radicalism, demanded the eight-hour day, and promoted the producers ethic of republicanism. -
The Gilded Age
Also known as the age of reform. It refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. It was a period of intense economic and social change. During the years between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century, americans closed the frontier, shed their agrarian roots, and embraced new technologies. -
Factory Act 1878
Brought all the previous Acts together in one consolidation. Reformers had tried to push several acts through Parliament to improve the health of the workers and apprentices. The act had the following provisions:Now the Factory Code applied to all trades, No child anywhere under the age of 10 was to be employed, Compulsory education for children up to 10 years old, and 10-14 year olds could only be employed for half days. Women were to work no more than 56 hours per week -
Pendleton Civil Service act of 1883
An Act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States. The act provided selection of government employees competitive exams, rather than ties to politicians or political affiliation. It also made it illegal to fire or demote government employees for political reasons.To enforce the merit system and the judicial system, the law also created the United States Civil Service Commission. -
American Federation of Labor
Organized as an association of trade unions in 1886, growing out of an earlier Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions founded in 1881. They negotiated with political adventageous diplomats to gain better wages and working condtions for the industrial workers. -
Populist Party Platform
In the 1890s the Populist Party appeared to represent a third party independent of the Democrats and Republicans. A response to the growth of industrialism, the Populists opposed the banks and big businesses and opposed many of the effects that industrialism was having on American society. -
Underwood tariff act of 1913
The Underwood tariff act measure vastly increased the free list, adding woolens, iron, steel, farm machinery and many raw materials and foodstuffs. The average rate was approximately 26 percent, which decreased tremendously.The new tariff act also provided for the reinstitution of a federal income tax as a means to compensate for anticipated lost revenue because of the reduction of tariff duties. -
19th Amendment
Culmination of the work of many activists in favor of women’s suffrage.
